World briefs

Houston Chronicle News Services

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, March 18, 2004

Villagers flee after bloody crackdown

WANA, Pakistan -- Hundreds of frightened residents streamed out of a remote tribal village Wednesday as enraged tribesmen torched military vehicles, a day after 39 people were killed in a bloody crackdown by Pakistani forces on al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives near the lawless Afghan border. The tribesmen set fire late Tuesday and early Wednesday to more than a dozen military vehicles -- some loaded with ammunition -- and two artillery guns, residents and an intelligence official said. Mosque loudspeakers blared a warning from authorities that residents must leave the besieged village of Kaloosha.

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Iranian president's reform effort fails

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's beleaguered president conceded defeat Wednesday in his long struggle to reform a system stacked in favor of hard-line Islamic clerics, saying he was abandoning efforts to salvage two key bills that sought to expand presidential powers and limit the authority of an unelected conservative body. Mohammad Khatami, once hailed as the leader of a hugely popular reform movement, conceded that two key reform proposals designed to check the powers of hard-liners were dead.

Top rebel commander captured in Colombia

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Police captured a top rebel commander who was allegedly recruiting youths to carry out suicide attacks against President Alvaro Uribe and other officials. Luis Hipolito Ospina, a senior member of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was arrested Tuesday in the capital, Bogota, said Jorge Noguera, Colombia's secret police chief. He said Ospina was trying to indoctrinate 22 youths as suicide commandos.

Israeli missiles kill 4 in Gaza refugee camp

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli helicopters fired two missiles into a crowd of suspected gunmen in a Palestinian refugee camp Wednesday, killing four people in a stepped-up campaign to root out militants in the Gaza Strip. Two unarmed teenage boys and one militant were among the dead, Palestinian officials said. Amid the fighting, Islamic militants traded fire with Palestinian security forces in downtown Gaza City during a morning rush hour traffic stop, killing a civilian and wounding 17 people, Palestinian officials said.

Most Afghans still not registered to vote

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan may have to delay its historic elections in June because the overwhelming majority of its eligible voters still aren't registered to cast ballots, President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday after talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell. Blaming security and logistical problems, he said U.N. registration teams still have huge swaths of the lawless countryside to visit before the vote can be held. Only about 1.5 million of Afghanistan's 10.5 million eligible voters -- or less than 15 percent -- have registered for the presidential and parliamentary elections.